Veneto reds boast a storied past

http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/food/sc-food-0919-wine-veneto-reds-20140919-column.html
9/19/2014
Veneto reds boast a storied past
Dining and DrinkingWines
Bill St. John
Chicago [email protected]
Veneto awash in prestigious wines
Valpolicella makes up one-third of the production of Veneto. One of its prized grapes, corvina, is
also used in this IGT red (left). (Bill Hogan, Chicago Tribune)
Veneto, in northeast Italy, is one of 20 regions that make up the country. It is its most prolific
winemaker, and boasts the greatest percentage of top-classed wine. But a key technique for much
of that cutting-edge winemaking is far up the blade.
Veneto excels at a practice called appassimento, or grape drying, that is more than 3,000 years
old, mentioned by both Hesiod and Homer in their writings and a commonplace in imperial
Roman wine talk.
Why make wine out of partially dried grapes anyway? A clue comes by way of wine's nickname
in England until the early 1800s, "the sour." Until the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, when
winemakers learned (or, more properly, were able) to bottle wine and stopper bottles with corks
and employ hygienic winemaking practices, every single batch of wine made since winemaking
began in earnest some 6,000 years ago was spoiled, oxidized, vinegary, acrid and well nigh
unpalatable within two or three months of its birth.
But it still contained alcohol, and our ingenious kind used every method possible to either mask
the nasties or attempt to stave them off: additions of ground chalk, wood ash, resin, lye-ash,
marble dust, lime and every conceivable herb or spice. And they either boiled down wine to a
concentrate to which they later added water or made it out of dried or partially dried grapes. Such
dried-grape wines were sweeter, more potent and more durable than wines made from "regular"
grapes and, so, became highly prized and were more expensive than "the sour." All the great
wines of antiquity — Falernum, the so-called Romneys from Rome, the legendary Opimian
vintage of 121 B.C. — were dried-grape or concentrated wines.
Even more interesting is that when commerce in wine developed in Europe from the late Middle
Ages on, dried-grape wines were those most sought-after by the burgeoning bourgeoisie. Then as
now, special wines were the wines of the upper middle class.
Today, some of Veneto's appassimento wines, especially Amarone della Valpolicella, are also
among top-valued wines among those who know wine. The red wine Valpolicella, its blends and
various styles, make up a full one-third of the production of Veneto.
Valpolicella's prized grapes are corvina and a genetic relation, corvinone. Both are thick-skinned
and, with loose bunches of large berries, perfect for drying. They also ripen late, developing lots
of sugar (their names come from Venetian dialect, "cruina," unripe, or "ripens late").
Regular Valpolicella, of course, is also made, but it's nothing of "the sour," being the beneficiary
of modern advances in winemaking. It and its brother Bardolino taste and smell of dark cherries
and are gentle yet lively on the palate. Valpolicella is the great everyday red wine of Veneto.
But when tinkered with grapes alla appassimento, Valpolicella morphs into two wines even more
valued: Valpolicella ripasso and the famed Amarone, the former a sort of "baby Amarone" — a
mix, of a sort, of regular Valpolicella and the spent matter from Amarone winemaking, once
again fermented together.
Veneto reds to try
Two tasting gatherings of 30 red wines from Veneto yield these recommendations and notes,
listed by price. All wines are from Veneto.
2013 Allegrini Valpolicella Classico: No wood aging and a longer growing season in this
vintage add up to exuberant fruit. $15
2010 Bolla Valpolicella Ripasso Classico Superiore: A best-buy ripasso for its many-layered
aromas and flavors. $16
2010 Sartori di Verona Rosso Veronese "Regolo": All corvina; if you've ever had strawberries
from the woods, this is that in the form of wine; soft tannins, good acidity for food. $19
2010 Inama Rosso Carmenere "Piu": A really neat carmenere from the hills outside Verona;
the "piu" ("more") is softening merlot at 30 percent; super value in dense, deeply flavored red.
$20
2009 Secondo Marco Valpolicella Ripasso Classico: The favorite Ripasso of the tastings for its
unfolding layers of scents and flavors (sour cherry, leather, wet stone, espresso, whew!). $25
2011 Allegrini Palazzo della Torre Rosso Veronese: The great new twist on modern ripasso in
which the winery sets aside a portion of grapes for appassimento very early in harvest then adds
them to the regularly picked grapes for a fresher, more lively red than Ripasso typically
becomes. $25
2012 Cesari Valpolicella Superiore Ripasso "Mara": Various winemaking and aging
regimens conspire for complexity; one delicious ripasso. $25
2012 Buglioni Spumante Brut Rose "Il Vigliacco": Made of molinara, a grape once used but
now forbidden in Amarone production (hence the winery's nickname for it which means
"coward," a finger pointed at the authorities); a dry pink sparkler with a lot of unfolding flavor.
$30
2009 Cesari Corvina "Jema": Find out what pure (100 percent) corvina tastes like in this
earthy, softly tannic, deeply flavored red. $45
2010 Tenuta Sant'Antonio Amarone della Valpolicella "Selezione Antonio Castagnedi": As
Amarone goes, a terrific buy; chocolate-covered cherries without the sugar; hints of licorice,
coffee, spice and wood; wonderful for all it gives for relatively little outlay. $45-$50
2009 Zenato Amarone della Valpolicella Classico: One of the great Amarone, year after year;
Italians call Amarone a wine of "contemplazione" or "meditazione" because it is worth
intellectual savoring; this is that, all opening curtains and waves of scents, flavors and textures of
dark red fruits, spices and woods, richly rendered and caressing tannins. $50-$70